May 22, 2013, 7:52 am
Last edit by: gengar
Wifi Completion Status (Last Updated: 1/16/2015)
United Wi-Fi installation
Mainland USA
Worldwide Coverage
Worldwide Coverage Area
Satellite coverage may experience outages for reasons such as government regulations, weather and switching between satellite regions.
Gogo (PS Flights) Coverage Area
Pricing Data Points
City Pair / ~ Duration / Standard Cost / Premium Cost / Comments on Quality
747-400 (Panasonic):
A319/A320 (Panasonic):
City Pair / ~ Duration / Standard or Limited Access Cost / Premium or Full Access Cost / Comments on Quality
737s (Thales LiveTV): [prices are per-hour]
United Wi-Fi installation
Mainland USA
- B737 - 187/253 Complete (74%)
- B757 - 26/133 Complete (20%)
Worldwide Coverage
- A319 - 55/55 Complete (100%)
- A320 - 97/97 Complete (100%)
- B747 - 24/24 Complete (100%)
- B767 - 2/51 Complete (4%)
- B777 - 42/74 Complete (57%)
- B787 - 3/14 Complete (21%)
Worldwide Coverage Area
Gogo (PS Flights) Coverage Area
Pricing Data Points
City Pair / ~ Duration / Standard Cost / Premium Cost / Comments on Quality
747-400 (Panasonic):
- SFO-FRA / 10 hrs / ?? / $22.99 / (5/2013) Peak speed was 6.5Mbps down, 2Mbps up. 700ms latency. awesome. (unavaca)
- HNL-NRT / 8 hrs / $14.99 / $22.99 / The service worked all the way across the pacific, I was surprised at how reliable it was. The speediest I did topped out at .26mb, hardly "premium", but if you're ok with general web browsing and chatting with iMessage, it worked like a champ.
- LAX-SYD / 14 hrs / $16.99 / No premium options. (Col Ronson) 3Mbps download speed test, worked for 95% of flight
- SFO-HKG / 15 hrs / $16.99 / No premium option / (1/2014) (unavaca) speedtest immediately after wi-fi was available gave 700ms, 7Mbit down, 0.5Mbit up
- BKK-NRT / 5 hr / $16.99 / No premium option / (SS255)
- PEK-SFO / 11 hr / $16.99 / No premium option / Net access kept going down over the Pacific / Ookla speedtest 3.09 Mbps down, 0.23 Mbps up, 894ms RTT.
A319/A320 (Panasonic):
- EWR-SFO / 6 hrs / $12.99 / $19.99 (IIRC)
- EWR-SFO / 6 hrs / $14.99 / no premium option (3/2014) (greg99) speedtest 2498kbps d/l and an awesome 95kbps u/l (not a typo) 578ms latency
- SFO-PHL / ~5.5 hrs / $14.99 / no premium option (4/2014) (qisu) didn't do speed test. good part of the flight had slow speed or no connection at all.
- PHL-SFO / 6 hrs / $12.99 / no premium option (4/2014) (qisu) speedtest 2-3megabits down.
- PHL-IAH / 4 hrs / $9.99 / $12.99 (IIRC, standard may have been $7.99?)
- PHL-IAH / 3 hrs / $6.99 / no premium option [10/2013]
- ORD-LAS / 3.5 hrs / $7.99 / No premium option. (lenscap)
- ORD-SEA / 4 hrs / $9.99 / No premium option. (qisu)
- ORD-LAX / 4 hrs / $8.99 / No premium option / speedtest peak 3mbps, average 600kbps to 1.5mbps
- ORD-YVR / 4 hrs / $8.99 / No premium option / speedtest 3.86 Mbps to 10.70 Mbps down / 0.18 to 0.37 Mbps up - very reliable throughout the flight
- IAD-LAX / 5 hrs / $12.99 / No premium option / speedtest peak 1.5mbps, average 400kbps to 800kbps, worked for 80% of flight but pretty spotty at times, but at least FA announced signal was poor
- IAD-SEA / 5 hrs / $12.99 / No premium option / A319
- SFO-LAX / 1 hr / $3.99 / No premium option / A319 (greg99)
- SFO-ORD / 4 hr / $9.99 / No premium option / A320 / Pretty reliable, up most of the flight
- IAH-SEA / 4.5 hrs / $8.99 / no premium option A320 (6/2014) (qisu) speedtest 5megabits down, 0.2 megabits up.
City Pair / ~ Duration / Standard or Limited Access Cost / Premium or Full Access Cost / Comments on Quality
737s (Thales LiveTV): [prices are per-hour]
- IAH-TPA / ?? / $1 / $2 / (2/2014) (ssullivan) 23-25Mbps downstream (Premium/full access service). No service over Gulf of Mexico.
- MIA-EWR / 2 hr / $1 / $2 / (3/2014) (hirohito888) 16Mbps down, 1Mbps up [not sure if this is for the regular or full access]
- PDX-IAH / 4 hr / $1 / $2 / (4/2014) (qisu) regular was very slow, speed test about 100kilobits down.
- SEA-IAH / 4 hr / $1 / $2 / (5/2014) (edcho) full access was speedy. 22 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up. Ping was 700ms.
- SEA-IAH / 4 hr / $1 / $2 / (6/2014) (qisu) full access, 5-15 Mbps down, 0.2 Mbps up.
United Launches Satellite-Based Wi-Fi Service
Jun 21, 2015, 3:09 pm
#601
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Florida
Programs: Mileage Plus
Posts: 57
Has anyone been having issues with any IAH to LAX route on and 753 equipped with WiFi
Jun 21, 2015, 3:26 pm
#602
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: SJC / DPS
Programs: AS G75K, UA Silver
Posts: 1,757
I actually have issues if I use the satellite Wi-Fi on back-to-back flights.
For example, works perfectly on ORD-HKG, but then fails on HKG-SIN (same plane)
In these cases, the unitedwifi.com portal fails to load on any device I've previously connected (blank white page, doesn't time out). Seems like a caching issue on their end, as I clear everything and still it persists.
Wrote it in a few times but no fix.
For example, works perfectly on ORD-HKG, but then fails on HKG-SIN (same plane)
In these cases, the unitedwifi.com portal fails to load on any device I've previously connected (blank white page, doesn't time out). Seems like a caching issue on their end, as I clear everything and still it persists.
Wrote it in a few times but no fix.
Jun 21, 2015, 3:34 pm
#603
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: IAH
Programs: *AG, Choice Privileges Elite Diamond, SPG Gold, La Quinta Returns Gold, Wyndham Rewards Gold
Posts: 466
I am 4 for 4 on having problems with Wi-Fi and Personal Device Entertainment on my A319/320 flights in the past two weeks. The funny thing is that the failure condition is always exactly the same:
1. Once we hit 10,000 feet, I am able to connect to the United_Wi-Fi SSID and pull up the unitedwifi.com web site in my browser to select a movie to watch or pay for Internet access.
2. After about 10 minutes, the unitedwifi.com portal no longer responds. If I'm watching a movie, it continues to play, but afterwards, trying to point my browser back to unitedwifi.com to pick another movie or pay for Internet access just causes the browser to hang. If I paid for Internet access during the ~10 minutes that the unitedwifi.com portal was accessible, it continues to work, but my browser hangs if I try to go back to unitedwifi.com. If I haven't paid for Internet access, I can go to united.com or use the United app just fine, but cannot open unitedwifi.com.
Basically, the unitedwifi.com portal becomes unresponsive after about 10 minutes. This happens on all of my devices (iPhone, iPad, MacBook), and also seems to happen to everyone around me who is trying to use the system.
On my last flight, the purser reset the system, which restored things again for about 10-15 minutes, and then the same problem occurred.
Are any others seeing this same behavior? It has been so consistent for me lately that it seems like it must be some sort of systemic problem.
1. Once we hit 10,000 feet, I am able to connect to the United_Wi-Fi SSID and pull up the unitedwifi.com web site in my browser to select a movie to watch or pay for Internet access.
2. After about 10 minutes, the unitedwifi.com portal no longer responds. If I'm watching a movie, it continues to play, but afterwards, trying to point my browser back to unitedwifi.com to pick another movie or pay for Internet access just causes the browser to hang. If I paid for Internet access during the ~10 minutes that the unitedwifi.com portal was accessible, it continues to work, but my browser hangs if I try to go back to unitedwifi.com. If I haven't paid for Internet access, I can go to united.com or use the United app just fine, but cannot open unitedwifi.com.
Basically, the unitedwifi.com portal becomes unresponsive after about 10 minutes. This happens on all of my devices (iPhone, iPad, MacBook), and also seems to happen to everyone around me who is trying to use the system.
On my last flight, the purser reset the system, which restored things again for about 10-15 minutes, and then the same problem occurred.
Are any others seeing this same behavior? It has been so consistent for me lately that it seems like it must be some sort of systemic problem.
Jun 21, 2015, 3:44 pm
#604
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
Jun 21, 2015, 4:17 pm
#605
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Houston
Programs: UA Plat, Marriott Gold
Posts: 12,686
In addition to the White Sands limitation, much of the flight is close to the border which is the limit of the crippled system on some of the 753 (and all of the wifi equipped 737) so you may be running into service area issues. Airbus, 752, and widebodies have a global system that works along the border and in the gulf of mexico and the east coast offshore routes.
Jun 21, 2015, 7:32 pm
#606
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
In addition to the White Sands limitation, much of the flight is close to the border which is the limit of the crippled system on some of the 753 (and all of the wifi equipped 737) so you may be running into service area issues. Airbus, 752, and widebodies have a global system that works along the border and in the gulf of mexico and the east coast offshore routes.
Also, the flights very rarely actually go over Mexico because if they did UA would have to pay Mexico for the over-fly. And there's rarely a reason to do so.
Jul 2, 2015, 1:16 pm
#607
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: YVR SFO
Programs: UA G
Posts: 4,866
Whee. On a 737 with the DirecTV Wi-Fi. The $2/hr standard option is throttled to around 256kbps with occasional spikes to 512kbps. Combined with the high latency of the satellite services, I'm seeing tons of connection timeouts if I'm doing more than one thing at a time.
The $4/hr option appears to be mostly uncapped; I'm getting around 8Mbps at the moment.
I used to the $2/hr option for and hour and a half before giving up and paying the $4/hr. Grumble.
The $4/hr option appears to be mostly uncapped; I'm getting around 8Mbps at the moment.
I used to the $2/hr option for and hour and a half before giving up and paying the $4/hr. Grumble.
Jul 2, 2015, 2:15 pm
#608
Moderator, Omni, Omni/PR, Omni/Games, FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Between DCA and IAD
Programs: UA 1K MM; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 67,108
My last few wifi experiences have been poor. I refunded a couple of them due to the wifi basically being useless (and UA refunded without protest, to be fair).
I do prefer the hourly rate on the 73x's to the fixed rate on Airbus & widebodies. $16 for a transcon where the service is useless for over half the flight is a rip off.
I do prefer the hourly rate on the 73x's to the fixed rate on Airbus & widebodies. $16 for a transcon where the service is useless for over half the flight is a rip off.
Jul 2, 2015, 5:28 pm
#609
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: NYC
Programs: UA GS, SPG Plat, National EC Executive (Replaced Hertz), Hertz PC (Retired)
Posts: 724
Whee. On a 737 with the DirecTV Wi-Fi. The $2/hr standard option is throttled to around 256kbps with occasional spikes to 512kbps. Combined with the high latency of the satellite services, I'm seeing tons of connection timeouts if I'm doing more than one thing at a time.
The $4/hr option appears to be mostly uncapped; I'm getting around 8Mbps at the moment.
I used to the $2/hr option for and hour and a half before giving up and paying the $4/hr. Grumble.
The $4/hr option appears to be mostly uncapped; I'm getting around 8Mbps at the moment.
I used to the $2/hr option for and hour and a half before giving up and paying the $4/hr. Grumble.
Jul 2, 2015, 6:13 pm
#610
Join Date: Mar 2015
Programs: UA Silver
Posts: 74
It kills me that the 737 flights to Alaska do not have wifi coverage because they are all the DIRECTV Wi-fi.
Jul 2, 2015, 6:39 pm
#611
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 187
I was able to have a very good video chat with my cousin in a cab in ShangHai while over Russia for seven to ten minutes on UA850 a few weeks ago. I was impressed. Had to turn my VPN off to log in though.
Jul 5, 2015, 5:01 pm
#612
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: SFO
Posts: 1,045
Related question (apologies if asked/answered before): Is BYOD entertainment effectively the end of Channel 9? It would seem that those AC equipped for BYOD entertainment exclusively have the WiFi system shut off anytime while under 10000 feet altitude. And that would be the most fun part of the trip to listen to Channel 9. Any word on that?
Jul 5, 2015, 10:04 pm
#613
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: IAH
Programs: *AG, Choice Privileges Elite Diamond, SPG Gold, La Quinta Returns Gold, Wyndham Rewards Gold
Posts: 466
Service Temporarily unavailable - for the whole flight?
Just took UA 1503 IAH-PHX. This flight had a 739 with the Wifi configuration. I tried during the whole flight to pop a connection. Each time I tried, I got this error:
Service Temporarily Unavailable
The server is temporarily unavailable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Apache server at www.unitedwifi.com Port 80.
The united app did not work. And I tried to connect with the browser, which did not work. I tried rebooting the phone, to no avail. I tried switching off and on Wifi, turning off airplane mode, even turning on cellular data, but nothing had any impact.
I am using an Android phone with the Chrome browser. Is that the culprit? Or do I need to switch to a different browser? I think other people on the flight were able to connect; I see them watching videos during the flight.
Has anyone encountered this error, and if so, what did you do to get around it? Thanks.
Service Temporarily Unavailable
The server is temporarily unavailable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Apache server at www.unitedwifi.com Port 80.
The united app did not work. And I tried to connect with the browser, which did not work. I tried rebooting the phone, to no avail. I tried switching off and on Wifi, turning off airplane mode, even turning on cellular data, but nothing had any impact.
I am using an Android phone with the Chrome browser. Is that the culprit? Or do I need to switch to a different browser? I think other people on the flight were able to connect; I see them watching videos during the flight.
Has anyone encountered this error, and if so, what did you do to get around it? Thanks.
Jul 6, 2015, 12:21 pm
#614
Join Date: Apr 2015
Programs: United Global Services, Amtrak Select Executive
Posts: 4,092
Just took UA 1503 IAH-PHX. This flight had a 739 with the Wifi configuration. I tried during the whole flight to pop a connection. Each time I tried, I got this error:
Service Temporarily Unavailable
The server is temporarily unavailable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Apache server at www.unitedwifi.com Port 80.
The united app did not work. And I tried to connect with the browser, which did not work. I tried rebooting the phone, to no avail. I tried switching off and on Wifi, turning off airplane mode, even turning on cellular data, but nothing had any impact.
I am using an Android phone with the Chrome browser. Is that the culprit? Or do I need to switch to a different browser? I think other people on the flight were able to connect; I see them watching videos during the flight.
Has anyone encountered this error, and if so, what did you do to get around it? Thanks.
Service Temporarily Unavailable
The server is temporarily unavailable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Apache server at www.unitedwifi.com Port 80.
The united app did not work. And I tried to connect with the browser, which did not work. I tried rebooting the phone, to no avail. I tried switching off and on Wifi, turning off airplane mode, even turning on cellular data, but nothing had any impact.
I am using an Android phone with the Chrome browser. Is that the culprit? Or do I need to switch to a different browser? I think other people on the flight were able to connect; I see them watching videos during the flight.
Has anyone encountered this error, and if so, what did you do to get around it? Thanks.
And it's definitely not any general issue with Chrome on Android, as that is how I always connect.
UPDATE: Just to clarify: What I think is going on is that the system is set to refuse additional connections once some capacity limit is reached, but once you are connected to the WiFi router, then you are never kicked off. So the idea is to connect as soon as possible.
Jul 6, 2015, 12:43 pm
#615
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: BNA
Programs: HH Gold. (Former) UA PP, DL PM, PC Plat
Posts: 8,178